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The Old Senate House. 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 

By Mary Isabella Forsyth. 



IT was old Kingston a hundred years 
ago. Even then it had felt for the 
greater part of two centuries the ebb 
and flow of history. Founded when the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew was still 
fresh in the world's memory, and when 
the terrible persecutions under Louis 
XIV. were already ablaze, Huguenot and 
Hollander here joined forces, married 
and intermarried, until the inhabitants 
of to-day show the names and charac- 
teristics of both races. Blended with 
these is a strain of Norse blood, too 
limited to carry with it the vigorous 
energy of the Vikings ; but the quick, 
vivacious motions of eye or hand, the 
ready gesticulation of the Gallic race, 
have come down to our day, in marked 
contrast to the phlegmatic methods of 
thought and action derived from Dutch 
ancestry. 

Perhaps to its lack of enterprise is due 
much of the attractiveness of the old 
town. A certain dreamy atmosphere 
still pervades it. The activities of the 
present pale before the suggestions of the 
past. The whistle of the locomotive, the 
whir of machinery, the growing number 

815 



of shops, houses, churches, — none of 
these seem to the sojourners in Kingston 
its greatest interest. That lies in the back- 
ground of record and tradition. New- 
comers, indeed, are here. There is a city 
hall : a union depot, where three railways 
meet; electric cars whirl through the city 
of twenty-three thousand inhabitants ; 
new industries are creeping in, where 
formerly farms and quarries were the 
main sources of income ; iron bridges 
span streams long crossed by means of 
dark wooden tunnels ; gas and electricity 
replace the dim lanterns formerly seen 
bobbing about the ancient streets, along 
footpaths wandering through wayside turf. 
But the old streets are the same, laid 
out, it is said, by the cows of the early 
inhabitants ; many of the old houses are 
still standing ; and an intangible some- 
thing pervades the whole, — an aroma 
of antiquity, subtly but strongly felt. 

Early records show that in 1614 a 
fort and trading-post were established 
by the Dutch at the mouth of the Ron- 
dout, at the same time that similar forts 
were built at New Amsterdam and at 
Castle Island, near Albany. This post is 



346 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK^S FIRST CAPITAL. 



alluded to in Ccarly documents still m 
possession of the Holland government as 
one of the strongholds of the Dutch m 
America. But the first permanent settle- 
ment was made in 1652. 

We cannot wonder at the selection of 
this lovely site by the pioneers of that 
date, who, indeed, called it "an exceed- 
ingly beautiful land." The high table- 
land now known as Upper Kingston 
(formerly " Atkarkarton," " Esopus," and 
"Wiltwyck") descends abruptly, on the 
north, to the valley of Esopus Creek, 
with its rich meadows. Beyond this rise 
first the foothills, then the Catskills, in 
their satisfying beauty. Some two miles 
away Rondout Creek rolls its deep flow 
along the southern boundary of the pres- 
ent city, while the Hudson sweeps majes- 
tically the eastern line. On the western 
horizon lies the strangely marked outline 
of the Shawangunk Mountains, broken by 
Lake Mohonk and "The Gaps." Like 
London, the little city is formed by the 
ingathering of adjacent villages or ham- 
lets, continuing to bear their distinctive 
names. These are separated, in some 



white man a negro." Indeed, the gen- 
eral removal of the big barns that, like 
the houses, with their cozy old stoops, 
fronted close upon the streets, is compar- 
atively recent ; and the number of colored 
inhabitants is still noticeable. 

There is an unusual mingling of edi- 
fices, antique and modern, elegant and 
plain, oddly significant of the relation- 
ships and associations of the inhabitants. 
Next to a mansion of colonial size and 
proportions may be some modest little 
dwelling or shop ; all, even in the newer 
portions of the town, seeming as if 
dropped down by chance. 

The first building usually noticed by 
the stray tourist to the Catskills, who by 
chance spends a night at Kingston, is 
a beautiful church of native bluestone 
standing in a long-unused graveyard 
shaded by magnificent elms. Strolling 
beneath these, the traveller finds much of 
interest. The musical bell in the high 
tower surmounted by a graceful spire 
came from Amsterdam in 1795. When 
moved to its present location, the clapper 
was found to be worn flat. The first 




The Jansen House 



parts, by wide stretches of green fields 
and rolling hills. 

A newcomer has said of the town, 
" Every street has a character of its own, 
each totally difi"erent from every other." 
An earlier common saying was, " Every 
other house is a barn and every other 



bell, also from Holland, was transferred 
to the court house and finally broken. 

The names and dates on the tomb- 
stones deserve attention. The oldest 
stone is a narrow bluestone slab, resting 
acrainst a cedar stump, and rudely marked 
by the initials " D. W." and the date 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



347 



"1710." Previous to this date, it is said, 
interments were made beneath the church, 
— not the present structure, but one 
nearly on the same site. The names 
De Witt, Ehiiendorf, Wynkoop, Ten- 
broeck, Oosterhoudt, Van Gaasbeek, etc., 
betoken Holland ances- 
try ; Severyn Bruyn tells 1 
of Norwegian origin ; 
while Dumond, DuBois, 
Hasbrouck, commemo- 
rate French progenitors. 

The first glance 
within shows, above the 
pulpit, a memorial win- 
dow of rare beauty and 
value, recently present- 
ed to the church by Mr. 
David H. Houghtaling, 
of New York. The sub- 
ject is the Presentation 
in the Temple. 

Passing through the 
church, of noble pro- 
portions and severe Ro- 
man architecture, we 
find much to inspect. 
In the pastor's study, in the belfry, is 
an oaken chest, bearing the date 1676. 
Its massive key is attached to an im- 
mense iron chain. This chest contains 
the records of the church, in the Dutch 
language, — a full register of her bap- 
tisms, communicants, and marriages. In 
antique French are preserved the ac- 
counts of business connected with her 
early history. Among the many names 
perpetuated on tablets on the walls is 
that of Gilbert Livingston. He was 
the third son of the original patentee 
of Livingston Manor, and is deserving 
of more than the simple mention here 
given, as he was the first person in the 
State who manumitted his slaves. Two 
noticeable monuments are to the memory 
of Rev. John Cantine Farrell Hoes, D. D., 
whose long ministry is also recorded 
on the pastors' tablet ; and of A. Bruyn 
Hasbrouck, LL. D., formerly president 
of Rutgers College, who returned in his 
later years to the home of his boyhood 
and his ancestors. On the left of the 
pulpit are the names of the pastors, as 
follows : Hermanus Blom, 1660—67 ; Lau- 
rentius Van Gaasbeek, 1678-80; Jo- 



hannes Weekstein, 1681-87; Laurentius 
Vander Bosch, 1687-89; John Petrus 
Nucella, 1 695-1 704; Henricus Beys, 
1706-8; Petrus Vas, 1710-56; George 
Wilhelmus Mancius,i 732-62 ; Hermannus 
Meyer, D. D., 1763-72; George Jacob 




The Old Academy. 

Leonard Doll, 1 775-1808 ; John Gosman, 
D. D., 1 808-35 ; John Lillie, D. D., 1 836- 
41 ; John Hardenburgh Van Wagenen, 
1841-44; John Cantine Farrell Hoes, 
D. D., 1845-67 ; David Newland Van- 
derveer, 1867-76 ; John Garnsey Van 
Slyke. 

The church was organized in 1656, by 
a lay reader named Van Slyke or Van der 
Sluys, an ancestor of the present pastor. 
He was called the "comforter of the 
sick," who " spoke the words of the 
Lord " to the little colony. The ancient 
communion service tells of the close ties 
binding this church, in its early days, to 
that beyond the seas, — two tall, curiously 
wrought silver beakers, having been sent 
over as gifts from the Holland church. 
One is marked 1683 ; the other, — meet- 
ing the needs of an increasing number 
of communicants, — 1711. Duplicates of 
the older one have recently been added 
as memorial gifts. 

Beneath the church are buried many 
whose names meet our eyes upon the 
marbles upon the interior walls. Many of 
these names are still borne by members 
of the present congregation, and are 



348 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



familiar sounds among the simple people 
who still meet and mingle with little 
thought of social differences, and are 
all united in deep loyalty to the " old 
church," as it is commonly called through 



house (rebuilt after the Revolution) in 
which the State Constitution was framed 
on April 20, 1777, was torn down in 1856 
to make way for a modern dwelling. But 
diagonally opposite still remains, as a 



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Old Kingston Bridge. 



the vast stretch of country once forming 
its parish. 

Until 1808, its services were con- 
ducted, either wholly or in part, in the 
Dutch language. Indeed, to the present 
generation it was formerly a matter of 
course to hear kindly greetings exchanged 
in the Holland tongue, as the congrega- 
tion passed out through the vestibule. 
This was especially the case after Christ- 
mas and New-Year services, when hearts 
drew closest together. 

Nearly opposite the churchyard — 
through which, as a thoroughfare, pass 
the busy feet of the present generation — 
is the court house, inscribed with the 
date of its erection, 181 8. This build- 
ing, too, replaces a much older one al- 
luded to in some of the earliest accounts 
of national events, which had above its 
doorway the following inscription, cut in 
stone : " This town was burned by Brit- 
ish cruelty on Oct. 16, ITJJ.'' 

Not far away, yet on the " East Front" 
of what was formerly the village, — earlier 
the " fortje," enclosed by its stockade, — 
is the Senate House, where the first 
Senate of the State of New York held its 
sessions. This was built by Wessel Ten- 
broeck, in the latter part of the seven- 
teenth century. It is now owned and kept 
in repair by the State. The old stone 



residence, what was in Revolutionary 
times the tavern of Conrad Elmendorf, a 
noted place for political gatherings. 

The Constitution having been adopted 
in an evening session of the convention, 
the public proclamation was made at 
the court house at eleven o'clock the 
following morning. Under the Constitu- 
tion an election for governor was held, 
and, on the 30th of July, George Clinton 
was declared duly elected. It was then 
ordered " that the said proclamation be 
made and published by the sheriff of 
Ulster County, at or near the court house, 
in Kingston, Ulster County, at six o'clock 
in the afternoon," — a sensible hour for a 
midsummer day ! It was also " resolved 
and ordered that Capt. Evart Bogardus 
and Capt. John Elmendorph do cause the 
companies of militia under their respec- 
tive commands to appear at the Court 
House in Kingston at six o'clock this 
afternoon properly armed and accoutred, 
at which time and place His Excellency, 
George Clinton, will be proclaimed Gov- 
ernor of this State." 

Owing to the unsettled condition of the 
State, then in the throes of the national 
struggle, the Senate could not obtain 
a quorum until the 9th of September. 
It then met in the Old Senate House, 
as it is now called. The Assembly 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



349 



met in Capt. Bogardus's inn, where the 
Constitution had been adopted. At the 
court house, the Senate and Assem- 
bly met the governor; and there the 
Supreme Court was or- 
ganized, on Sept. 9, by 
Chief Justice Jay. In his 
charge to the grand jury 
(given in full in Schoon- 
maker's History of King- 
ston) occur these words, 
among many worthy of 
memory : — 

" The Americans are 
the first people whom 
Heaven has favored with 
an opportunity of deliber- 
ating upon and choosing 
the forms of government 
under which they should 
live. . . . You will know 
no power but such as you will create ; no 
authority unless derived from your grant ; 
no laws, but such as acquire all their obli- 
gation from your consent. . . . Let virtue, 
honor, the love of liberty and of science 
be and remain the soul of this Constitu- 
tion, and it will become the source of 
great and extensive happiness to this and 
future generations." 

The Legislature continued in session 



Assembly and Senate ; and their formal 
meetings gave way to a convention com- 
posed of members of both houses, and 
presided over by Pierre Van Cortlandt. 





The De Wall House. 

until Oct. 7, when news arrived of the 
capture, by the enemy, of Fort Mont- 
gomery. At this crisis, military service 
claimed many members of both the 



The Masten House. 

It passed resolutions to continue the 
committees formed in September for the 
protection of the town. A Council of 
Safety was also formed, and most active 
measures were resolved upon in prepara- 
tion for any attack from the enemy along 
the river-front. It was ordered that 
vessels should be loaded with provisions 
and other supplies stored near the river, 
and sent to Albany. Cattle were to be 
driven into the interior. 
" ■ If the owners should 
I refuse consent to this, 
the animals should be 
killed. State papers, 
too, were to be removed 
to a place of greater 
safety. But when this 
was finally accom- 
plished the foe was at 
hand, firing the town. 

Many houses now 
standing were rebuilt on 
the ruins left smoking 
at the close of that 
awful day, the i6th of 
October, 1777. Their 
massive stone walls and 
solid beams were not 
in every case destroyed, 
though blackened and broken down. 
Some of these restored dwellings are 
one-storied, with high-pitched roofs and 
dormer windows; others, large, square, 



350 



OLD KINGSTON: NFAV YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



and dignified as an old burgomaster. 
The quaint old church, a sketch of which 
is here given through the courtesy of Mr. 
Marius Schoonmaker, was laid waste ; and 




*iUsi 




The Tappan House. 

only one house within what were then the 
village limits was spared. That still 
stands on Wall Street, just as when 
originally built. It was saved from de- 
struction by the faithfulness of a slave, 
who hid near at hand until the foe had 
])assed on and then returned to extin- 
guish the fire. 

One old lady had a feast prepared 
in hope of softening 
by this hospitality the 
hearts of the British 
officers, who enjoyed 
the good cheer and 
then, alas ! burned the 
house. \V h e n Mrs. 
Elmendorf, this ancient 
dame, was told of the 
burning of her family 
mansion, one of her 
slaves exclaimed : " No, 
Missus, that can't be, 
for I have the key in 
my pocket ! " 

Through these very 
precincts rang the cry 
(familiar still to the old 
Kingstonian), "Lope, 
younge, lope ! die roode 
komme 1 " (Run, children, run 1 the red- 
coats are coming I) This summons sent 
the inhabitants (chiefly women and chil- 



dren, the able-bodied men being in the 
Continental army) fleeing for refuge to 
" New Uorp," now Hurley. The turn in 
the road whence was seen the glitter of 
the British muskets as the 
r - little party struggled on its 
P?4 way is still shown. And in 

''' Old Hurley, three miles 

away, stand solidly the 
stone houses that opened 
then for refuge, and that 
mark to-day the line of the 
same street that saw the 
Indian massacre of 1662, 
when Hurley and Wiltwyck 
( Kingston) were both burned 
by the redmen. Indeed, 
Kingston has been a very 
phoenix, not only repeatedly 
laid in ashes by hostile 
hands, but suffering seriously 
at various times from acci- 
dental fires. In the Has- 
brouck family record, which carries its 
accounts of the Huguenot family back 
of the date of the Edict of Nantes, 
this quaint mention is made of such 
an occurrence : " My dwelling-house in 
Kingston took fire by accident in the 
roof of the house — none knows the cause 
of how it took fire, it being the twenty- 
third day of October in the year of our 




The Hoffman H.„-. 



Lord 1776 at three of the clock in the 
afternoon, being a violent wind that very 
day, it consumed the house in a very 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



351 



short time. Lost most of my household 
furniture, groceries in my store or shop, 
and all my goods, linen, clothes, etc. 
Books, book-case, clock, and all the 
goods that were on the garret or loft, were 
all consumed, to a great \alue. The loss 
I sustained that day, at a modest compu- 
tation is computed to at least three thou- 
sand pounds. But thanks be to the great 



there until May the first 1777, and then 
I moved into my own house, which I had 
built some years before. (All the time I 
was at Egbert Dumont's, I was laid up 
with the above mentioned lameness, I had 
when my house was burned down.) God 
grant me to live now the remainder of my 
days in his fear and walk in the paths of 
righteousness and all my family, all the 




Library in the Hasbrouck House. 



and good God, I and all my family got 
out of the house unhurt, though I was 
then unable to help myself. I lay in bed 
lame in most all my limbs, so that I could 
not go or walk as little as a first-born 
child, and I through God's mercies have 
saved all my deeds, mortgages, bonds, 
notes, books, most part of my money then 
by me, except between £^i\^o and ^50 
then in my counter's drawer was lost and 
burnt. My neighbor Abraham Van Keu- 
ren's widow's house took fire, also black- 
smith's shop, Abraham Low's house, 
barn, barrack, Johannis Masten's house, 
Petrus Eltinge's house and barn, where 
David Cox then lived in a small house 
where John Carmen had his silversmith's 
shop. Jacobus S. Bruyn's house and barn 
all took fire and consumed, and several 
other houses in great danger. The loss 
was very great on the sufferers. Thank 
God, no lives lost, nor any body hurt. I 
with my family, with what was saved of 
my goods and bedding got into the house 
of Mr. Egbert Dumont, and remained 



days of our lives, and live in peace and 
quiet, and that God, of his infinite good- 
ness, will be pleased to bless me and all 
my family, both spiritually and temporally 
all the days of our lives, is my ardent 
prayer in the name of Christ Jesus, my 
only Saviour and Redeemer. Amen and 
Amen." 

Two other items may be quoted in this 
connection : " May the first and second 
days in the year of our Lord Christ 1777 
I and my family moved into the house I 
had bought about eighteen years ago of 
Mr. Robert G. Livingston wherein I now 
live. I pray God to preserve me and 
all my family and my dwelling-house." 
^^'ithin six months came the memorable 
1 6th of October, less than a year from 
the fire recorded above. "Then the 
enemy under the command of General 
Henry Clinton and General Vaughan came 
to Kingston in Esopus and burnt my 
dwelling-house," etc. The detailed account 
is full of interest, and closes with the state- 
ment, " I have lost since the fire in New 



3.-) 2 



OLD KIXGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



\«)rk I 776 until this time between ^9,000 
and X' 1 0,000. Thanks be to (lod for his 
great goodness, I, my wife and children 
escaped and unhurt out of the enemy's 
hancls. \'et my sons, Jacobus, Abraham 
and 1 )aniel were in the opposing of the 
enemy from landing and to oppose them 
to come to Kingston, and showers of shot 
flew on every side of them. I pray the 
Lord will support me under so heavy a 
trial and must say with Job, ' The Lord 
hath given and the Lord hath taken, The 
Lord's name may be praised.' " 

Passing through the older ])art of 
Kingston, once trodden by feet long ago 
at rest, we seem taken back to earlier 
times. On North Front Street still 
stands the immense De \V'all house, 
where were the Assembly Rooms fre- 
quented before and long after the Rev- 



irregularly placed on the western side of 
the building was a loophole, before the 
rebuilding. 

North of the De Wall house is the gam- 
brel-roofed mansion of Col. Bruyn, who 
raised and equipped at his own expense 
a company for the Continental army, 
led them to the seat of war, and was 
among the few survivors of the "Jersey" 
prison-ship, whose martyrs have recently 
been recalled to mind. This home was 
noted for its genial hospitality, extended 
even to strangers passing through the 
town. Just back of this, on Crown Street, 
we come to an old-time inn, with its oval 
sign supported by a high pole. Another, 
"The Black Horse Tavern," on Wall 
Street, remained, as a tenement house, 
until a few years ago. 

The whole western extremity of the 





The First Reformed Church. 



olution by the elite of the town and of the 
surrounding country, who met there at 
intervals for social intercourse and en- 
joyment. Farther down is the Hoffman 
house, which stood at the northwest cor- 
ner of the stockade raised to protect the 
first settlers after "fire-water " had begun 
its favorite work. At first the relations 
with the Indians here, as in other Dutch 
settlements, were so cordial that no such 
precautions were taken. A small window 



village is marked by quaint houses, 
among which are the homes of Beekmans, 
Hasbroucks, Van Burens, Wynkoops, etc., 
of past generations. The Tappan house 
IS especially noticeable, standing upon a 
point formed by the junction of Greene 
and Crown Streets. Its large, well-lighted 
rooms and pleasant garden made it in 
earlier days a delightful family dwelling. 
Very near it, once its next neighbor, "is 
the long, low stone house where John 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



353 



Vanderlyn, the artist, resided for some 
years before his death in 1850. This 
was previously the Van Keiiren home- 
stead, and bore its part in the tragedies 
that threatened the early life of the town. 
On the same street stands a similar 
dwelling, formerly a watchmaker's, marked 
until quite recently by a large watch hung 
from the overhanging stoop-roof. Here 
the first Methodists of King- 
ston used to gather, to the _ ' 
wonder and astonishment of 
the village children, who would 
crowd around the low win- 
dows and peer curiously with- 
in while services were being 
held, — services quite different 
from either the more formal 
mode of worship of the Dutch Church 
or the catechetical instruction given by 
the dominie to the children. Indeed, 
they were probably equally different from 
the Methodist meetings of the present 
day, notably so in point of the dress of 
the people, which was almost Quaker-like 
in its sobriety. 

A stone's-throw away, on 
opposite coiners, are four 
old buildings close upon the 
street. Repairs re- 
cently made upon 
one of these, 
-v^ owned by Hon. 



tutions of learning in State or nation, 
where were educated De Witt Clinton, 
Stephen Van Renssalaer, Edward Liv- 






T 




The Church burned by the British. 

Augustus Schoonmaker, brought to light 
charred timbers, which told the story of 
that October day of 1777. 

Another of the buildings is old King- 
ston Academy, one of the earUest insti- 



Church as Rebuilt after the Revolution. 

ingston, and many other noted men of 
early times. Uninjured by the lapse of 
years, it stands precisely as in its palmy 
days, except for the loss of cupola and 
bell. The present academy is the suc- 
cessor of this, and has recently been 
altered and enlarged into a handsome 
building, serving for the higher de- 
partment of the graded schools. On its 
campus was gathered, in 1861, the first 
New York regiment offered to the gov- 
ernment, — the "Old Twentieth," as it 
has since come to be called. Here the 
citizens gave a farewell breakfast to their 
defenders, and, moved at once with sor- 
row and exaltr.tion, followed them to 
Rondout, where on a memorable Sunday 
morning they embarked for the seat of 
war. 

Just opposite is the home of Gen. 
Sharpe, who went with the Twentieth 
as captain, and later enlisted and led to 
the field a second Ulster County regi- 
ment, — the Hundred and Twenti- 
* eth. In his house, which bears the 

/-., date of its erection (1828) upon 
its antique hall mantel, are to be 
'('/"•^ ' ■ found many relics of the past and 
many treasures of art. 
Many of these ancestral homes con- 
tain carved furniture of rare beauty and 
value, and exquisite silver and china 
that have come down from generation to 
generation. Here, in one instance at 
least, is china, evidently of Japanese 
make, which must have been brought 
over by the way of Holland, when only 



354 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



the Dutch had commercial relations with 
Japan. The silver is frequently traced 
with armorial bearings. In the Schoon- 
maker family are a full dozen of "Apos- 
tle " spoons, with flat, shallow bowls sur- 
mounted by figures of the Apostles. A 
similar spoon of some peculiar metal, 
found buried in the garden of the old 
Bruyn mansion, was doubtless brought 
from Norway by the first of the Bruyn 
family who came to this country. A fac- 
simile of this was in the Norwegian de- 
partment at the Centennial Exhibition. 

There are many old portraits, — some 
by skilled and well-known artists, of 
Revolutionary heroes ; " dominies," whose 
names and lineaments are familiar to 
generations far later than their own ; 
stately dames in dainty attire ; lawyers 
in legal robes long discarded by the bar. 
Most of them are evidently lifelike, and 
seem following with ghastly eyes the life 
and customs of their remote descendants. 
Tall clocks stand erect as a century ago, 
still faithful in marking lunar changes, 
still sounding each hour with sedate, 
silvery stroke. A "Kas," or wide-shelved 
wardrobe, in handsome West India wood, 
fitted together without nail or iron hinge, 
is usually found in some branch of every 
family of Holland descent, as are many 
other articles that would drive bric-a-brac 
collectors wild with enthusiasm. Among 
these are andirons of fine brass or mas- 
sive iron, huge cranes, and Dutch ovens, 
warming-pans, ancient kitchen utensils 
in copper and brass, deep, narrow fire- 
buckets, and toys of solid silver, daintily 
made and of early date. 

Bibles bound with dark leather, clasped 
with brass or silver, contain memorial 
records of progenitors whose forms have 
long since crumbled into dust; also, in 
some cases, of slaves born in those by- 
gone households. During the childhood 
of the writer, it was not uncommon to 
be asked to search such records for the 
convenience of these colored friends, who 
wanted to know their ages. Some of 
these names, then too familiar to be 
noticeable, would now seem odd indeed, 
such as Mimbo, Gomez, Csesar, Laukie, 
and Cobe. 

The first Sunday school in Kingston 
was started by members of the old 



church, for the colored people. Out of 
this grew the present Sunday school of 
the First Dutch Church. To this day, 
cordial and affectionate relations exist 
with these descendants of what was once 
a dependent race, who still designate 
their employers as "our family." 

We must not fail to notice in our wan- 
derings the Masten house, on the western 
outskirts of the town, which has its big 
old stoop still standing, in harmony with 
its substantial low walls. A similar house, 
— formerly the Ingraham homestead, — 
though enlarged, still shows its original 
shape, and is supposed to have been 
built by Thomas Chambers, an English 
colonist, on his manor, soon after the 
town was settled. It is generally known 
as Komoxen, the Indian name for the 
locality ; probably derived from " ko- 
moke," a spring. A genuine secret 
closet (which once concealed a young 
bride, fleeing from an angry father dis- 
pleased at her marriage) remained within 
its massive walls until some alterations 
unfortunately destroyed it, about thirty 
years ago. 

A short distance beyond Komoxton, 
"Manor Place" leads to the site of the 
manor-house proper, torn down at about 
the same date. On the way we pass 
other old-fashioned residences. The 
wing of one bears the marks of great 
antiquity. The whole vicinity is known 
as Foxhall, the name of the manor. It 
has been a question whether this was not 
a corruption of Vauxhall ; but this must 
remain unsolved in the mists of the past. 

Our sketch would indeed be incom- 
plete should it fail to introduce the 
reader to some of the families who still 
form the very fibre of "old Kingston." 

To one long familiar with the old resi- 
dents it is easy to recall many an anti- 
quated form no longer visible. We see 
once more the old surtout, with its many 
litde capes. Old ladies pass before us 
arrayed in shoulder-shawls, trim short- 
waisted gowns, just long enough to cover 
the ankle, neat " buskins," and with 
" fronts " of dark, unnatural hue covering 
their soft gray locks. Some of these 
shadowy presences seem to say, in the 
odd vocabulary scarcely yet discarded : 
" Come into the room" (/. e., the parlor. 



OLD KINGSTON: NEW YORK'S FIRST CAPITAL. 



355 



or best room) ; "Take off, and sit by " ; 
or, by way of consolation for some acci- 
dent, " It don't make " (a literal transla- 
tion of Maakt neii) . 

Much that was distinctive is passing 
away. The Dutch accents so common 



Kingston was the third place in impor- 
tance in the State, and when her heart 
beat with every early throb of our nation's 
young life. Without are the youth of the 
nineteenth century. Strangers in these 
later days come, take root, and thrive. 




J^//t- 



Kingston in 1819. 
FROM A TAINTING BY VANDERLYN. 



twenty years ago now rarely fall upon the 
ear. Many changes have come ; many 
must still come. But as we are welcomed 
into the homesteads of earlier generations 
we find often, even in the simplest, a re- 
finement that has accumulated through 
centuries of reverent faith, kindly thought, 
and mutual sympathy ; while in some 
there is added to this the culture given 
by literature, travel, and wide social in- 
tercourse. Yet there is also perceptible, 
even among those most in the outside 
world, a certain simplicity (an unworldli- 
ness we might call it) that gives an added 
grace to the genial warmth of welcome. 
And so we linger from day to day, or 
week to week, sharing the hospitable fare 
(olykoeks and crullers, it may be) spread 
upon fine old damask woven in the days 
of our great-grandparents, or sleeping in 
a canopied four-poster under its home- 
spun linen and flannel. 

And when the old letters, full of his- 
toric interest, are brought out, as we sit 
by the blazing fire on a winter evening, 
we seem to be ourselves of the past, be- 
longing to the remote days when old 



The quaint old dame may spread out her 
skirts and add to her antique garb some 
of the present fashions ; but she is still, 
and must remain for many a long day, a 
lady of the old school, both in appearance 
and in character. And in this is found 
her ineradicable charm. It is this that 
draws homeward her sons and daughters, 
when, "life's long battle won," they yearn 
for their familiar place kept unfailingly in 
her heart. It is this that adds so much 
to her natural beauty. It is a place of 
much comfort — very rarely of wealth ; a 
home rather than an inn, whose inmates 
constantly come and go ; and it is, of all 
the principal towns in the State, the one 
most indelibly marked by its past. Even 
Albany is yielding her original traits to 
the pressure of the times. But " Festina 
lenh',''' which might fittingly have served 
as the motto of the earlier State capital, 
has kept Kingston intact until it has be- 
come the fashion of the day to value and 
venerate the tokens of antiquity. May 
she remember and obey the divine in- 
junction, " Remove not the ancient land- 
marks which the fathers have set" ! 



MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOLS BEFORE THE 
REVOLUTION. 

By George H. Martin. 



THE founders of Massachusetts, in 
their theory of education, were in 
hne with the foremost of the re- 
formers ; and this hne was far in advance 
of the existing practice at the time of 
their expatriation. Universal opportunity 
for education was the utmost that even 
the charitable founders of the endowed 
schools aimed to secure by their gift. 
The Massachusetts Puritans went further, 
and decreed universal education ; but 
when they came to provide the means 
for such education, they set up such 
schools as they had been familiar with. 
Bryce has said : " Everything which has 
power to win the obedience and respect 
of men must have its roots deep in the 
past." As the student of our pohtical 
institutions is struck by the fact that their 
founders broke with the past so little, 
the student of our educational history 
observes the same fact, and finds that the 
early schools of New England are studied 
best in Old England. When the law- 
makers of 1647 spoke of grammar schools, 
they meant such schools as they had 
already started, and these were such as 
they had been educated in at home. 

Winthrop came from Groton, in Suf- 
folk. At Bury St. Edmunds, close by, 
was a free grammar school founded by 
Edward in 1553; at Eye, in the same 
county, was one founded before 1556; 
while at Sudbury there was another, 
founded by one \Villiam Wood, a year 
before Columbus discovered America. 
John Cotton came from Old Boston. 
There was a free grammar school, and 
Cotton, a few years before, had been one 
of a committee to select an usher for it. 
Endicott, of Salem, came from Dor- 
chester. There was a school founded in 
1579 : "A free school with a learned 
master, for children of all degrees." 
Dudley, of Roxbury, came from North- 
ampton. There was a school founded 

350 



in 1 541, to teach boys who desired to 
learn, freely. Hooker, of Cambridge, 
who led his flock through the wilderness 
to the Connecticut, came from Chelms- 
ford, in Essex. There, too, was one of 
the good Edward's free grammar schools, 
founded in 155 1. At Halstead and 
Colchester, too, in the same county, were 
similar schools. From the neighborhood 
of these came most of the early settlers 
of Cambridge. 

In view of these facts it is amusing to 
read in Mr. Douglas Campbell's book on 
the Puritans, that in the absence of any 
schools the Massachusetts Puritans must 
have educated themselves and their chil- 
dren. 

The statement is frequently made that 
Massachusetts, by its law of 1647, estab- 
lished a system of free public schools, 
the first in the world. However gratify- 
ing such statements might be to our local 
pride, and our pride of ancestry, candor 
compels us to declare that it is not true. 
Our fathers did establish a system of 
schools ; they were public schools, and 
many of them were free schools ; but, 
paradoxical as it may seem, there was at 
first no system of free public schools. 

Schools had been begun in nearly all 
the towns before 1647, and after that 
date new schools were added as the 
necessity arose. With perhaps a single 
exception, these were all public schools 
— the people's schools. The initiative 
was taken by the people as citizens — 
taken in town meeting, and recorded in 
the town records. 

The town voted to have the school ; the 
town determined the grade of the school ; 
the town chose the master and fixed his 
compensation ; the town, through its offi- 
cers, inducted him into office and arranged 
all the details of the school econony. 

This was all done as a matter of con- 
venience, not of right ; not at all with 



